Family
by ArashiMiduriAsui
Summary: Four boys, all from different places, running for different reasons. Who would have ever thought of them as a family? Rated T for some language.
1. Terran

Family (Part 1)

I never had a family.

My parents are either dead, or they abandoned me, or both. All I know is I wound up in an orphanage, and though they try to encourage a "family atmosphere" in there, it doesn't fool anyone. Growing up, I pretty much thought I would never have a family. I was an orphan, and orphans didn't go anywhere in life unless they got adopted or were in the movies. And, really, who ever managed to get adopted? If you didn't go anywhere, no one would want to be with you, you could never start your own family. Family wasn't an option for someone like me.

That's why I ran away. I thought if I was alone, if I wasn't surrounded by people, it would be easier to bear. I was wrong, but there was no way I was going back there. Back where they lied and tried to pretend everything was alright when, really, you were doomed. At least on the streets, nobody tried to pretend things were better than they were. Most folks were pretty pessimistic, actually. I don't know why, but that drew me.

The first person I met out there who wasn't trying to hurt, rob, or kill me, was Tilan. Now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic that he would be that person. Seeing how hurting, stealing, and killing is kind of his forte.

I was five when I met Tilan. I'd spent a year on the streets alone already, and I met him in a dark alleyway one day after unsuccessfully trying to steal myself some lunch. Most of my food in those early days was obtained from dumpsters.

I was wandering down the alley when I saw a tall shape in front of me. He looked to be about nine or ten, which, to five-year-old me, was pretty darn old at the time. As I watched, this mysterious, intimidating presence threw something at the ground, cussing like a sailor.

I dared scoot a little closer, just to see what it was he has discarded. To my surprise, I saw a limp, tan teddy bear with a large cut in it's neck. Stuffing poked out of the slash.

The strange boy noticed me now, and snarled, "Whaddya want, kid?"

I was instantly terrified. After a year, I'd learned not to trust anyone, and to always assume the worst. But the boy made no move towards me, so I asked hesitantly,

"...why don't you want it?"

He snorted. "Because it doesn't have money in it." He gave the bear a swift kick, sending it towards me. "Here, kid. You want it?"

I hesitated again, but then nodded vigorously and picked up the scruffy toy. Every five year old needs a teddy bear, mud-caked and maimed or not.

The older boy put his hands in his pockets and straightened up to walk away. Doing so, he entered the light, and I could notice something I hadn't been able to see before.

"Hey! You have red hair!" I squeaked with delight.

The boy gave me an odd look, maroon eyes boring in to me. "Yeah? So?"

I looked down to my feet. "I've- I've never seen someone else with red hair before..." I looked up and gave him my biggest smile. "I have red hair, too!"

He snorted. "_Really_?"

Being five years old, I couldn't exactly understand sarcasm yet. That was to be one of the many things this boy would teach me. I nodded, hugging the stuffed bear to my chest, and smiled up at him, "Yup!"

My fellow redhead turned as if to leave, then hesitated and turned back to face me again. "Hey, kid, what's your name?"

I was a little suspicious. Red hair or not, I didn't want to just give my name out to anyone. I also wasn't able to think of a proper excuse, so I buried my face in the bear's head and mumbled "I dunno..."

The boy laughed. "Guess I'll just call you 'Teddy', then, seeing as you're so attached to that little bear of yours." He grinned down at me, in a way that was utterly terrifying for a five-year-old boy. "And you can call me Stray. We'll see how much I like you before I consider telling you my real name."

I just stared up at him silently. Stray was obviously a street name, something someone earned after years in the underground, as everyone called it. You had to be tough to earn one of those. Soon, Stray turned around and started to walk away, asking without even looking over his shoulder, "Say, Teddy, have you eaten yet today?"

"No." I shook my head, and my stomach complained loudly as if to confirm my words.

"Well, I'm gonna get some lunch. You can tag along, if ya like."

I hesitated for a moment, then ran after him, teddy bear in tow.

And so I met Tilan. I only saw him about every week or so, even when I looked for him. It would be years until I learned the reason for that, the truth about my older friend. He helped me get by, taught me what I needed to know about... well... life, really. Sarcasm, theft, sports, breaking and entering, television, why rich people were stupid, why the main head of the black market downtown seriously needed to stop wearing spandex, because _he's not freaking superman and there are children around._

Everything I needed to know, and some things I probably shouldn't have known at that age. Being a little kid, it only took me a week before I told him my name. Tilan took a bit longer, but I learned more about him as time went on.

I saw Tilan on and off for about three years. Sometimes I'd see him every week, once he disappeared for six months straight and I was certain he was dead when all of a sudden, there he was, helping me convince Ernie (That's the spandex guy) that my lizard tail was worth trading for an illegally caught salmon (We did it, by the way). Then, one day, when I was eight years old, he showed up with a new face.

That new face was Wave, or as I later learned, Ranellin. Wave stayed with me full-time, and he already knew a lot about survival on the streets. Not as much as me, though. Not only had I learned from the master himself, but I also picked up a few tricks of my own along the way. Boy, was the eleven-year-old surprised to find out he could actually learn from me. Since I spent so much time with Wave, I got to know him pretty well. We worked together to survive, and grew closer. By the time we crossed paths with Aaron a year later, I already had my own street name (A couple of traders in the market coined me "Flame", due to my unusually bright hair), and Tilan was with us full-time, having finally broken out of the world's #1 top security asylum for good.

Aaron sort of just stumbled into Ranellin, which surprised us all. Usually everyone who crashed into street life ran into Tilan in one way or another. Stray just had this creepy way of being _there_. That's why Til was so famous in our warped little community- all the newcomers passed through him first, and he deemed them worthy, doomed, or, if he was in a temper, dead.

So, Aaron met Ran, and they made some sort of weird little pact-thing that had something to do with lead Wave to drag him over to me and Tilan and announced he would be joining us. Stray raised an eyebrow at the demand-rather-than-request tone, but let it slide that one time. We all knew Stray was the boss around here.

Aaron didn't exactly have the fortune of Tilan's good wishes at the beginning. It was probably just because of the way he was introduced, that he was probably the first kid ever to come down from the surface, not be deemed worthy by Stray, and live to tell the tale. That didn't exactly rub the alley cat the right way. The oldest and newest members bickered back and forth, and Aaron often received a little less help from our mentally imbalanced leader than the rest of us, especially after he started playing off of Stray's street name by calling him "Kitty". That didn't matter, though. Wave and I were more than willing to help him out.

Thinking about that fact one day, that's when I realized it: I had something I'd always been convinced I was doomed to remain without. A family. A dysfunctional one, maybe, but definitely a family.

We helped each other out whenever someone was in need, worked together to make it through each day, and kept each other company. We all held each other's sanity together. When Tilan went on rampages, only one of us could bring him back down. When Aaron saw somebody he recognized, everyone instantly flew to distract him from his haunting past life. When Ran got in another fight with that gang down the street, we all backed him up in battle. When I woke up screaming in the middle of the night from another nightmare, the other three were there to tell me that is was just a stupid dream, I was safe, and shut the hell up so that they could get some freaking sleep for once.

I brought up this subject with Ranellin once, sitting on the rooftop where we camped after another heist.

"Hey, Wave, if we were a family, what roles do you think everyone would fill?"

The conversation soon drew the rest of the "family". Aaron supplied,

"Wave would be the family shrink."

Tilan and I chuckled while Ran rolled his eyes. Tilan tipped his head and considered me before deciding, "Flamey, you'd be the annoying little bratty brother." Two heads nodded in agreement, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Aaron'd be the overprotective punk brother," I added. Aaron snorted.

"Punk?"

"Yeup."

"Well, what about Kitty?" Aaron glanced over at the oldest member of the group. "He sure as hell ain't the dad."

Wave snorted. "More like everyone's crazy uncle."

A grin spread across my face. "Uncle Kitty!" Everyone had a good laugh at that. Over the next week, "Uncle Kitty" became our official family nickname for Stray. Aaron and I took to calling each other "Bro", and Wave was already "Shrink", so nothing much changed there.

As time went by, I grew to consider my decision to run away from the orphanage the best one I'd ever made. Most specialists would agree that the environment and people around me weren't exactly healthy for a growing, impressionable child, but I didn't care. I knew I was happy and that was all that mattered.

I had a family. And there was nothing in this world that could possibly separate us. Not any foster homes, not Social Services, not the numerous asylums chasing Stray around, not even Aaron's crazy brother (Who was pretty much the three previous things combined into one, OCD, tuxedo-ed freak). No matter what, we would stick together. Because that's what families do.


	2. Aaron

Family (Part 2)

"You're a selfish, immature, undeserving brat," said my brother, black and white hair hanging over his hard amber eyes. "You're not my brother."

It was then that I turned away from him. I had always looked up to Kid. I'd do whatever he told me to do. But now... It's changed. Now I hate him more than anyone else I know.

So that's how I ended up alone. Alone on the streets. But that could be good, too, because that's where I met Ranellin. The most loyal weapon I've ever come across in my entire life. He introduced me to these two other kids, Terran and Tilan, and the four of us hit it off.

"Oi, Bone, help me with this, will ya?" called Ranellin from the alley. He was tottering on the top of two garbage cans stacked together so he could reach a windowsill. I grabbed the cans to stabilize them while Terran watched Ranellin's every move extremely closely. The blue-haired boy pried open the window and slipped through. He emerged about two minutes later with a carton of eggs, two packages of dried fruit, a box of crackers, and a gallon of water.

My weapon grinned at me, eyes lit up and I felt a rush of gratitude. If I were alone, I probably would have gone crawling back home by then. I was only ten, after all. But Wave, who was a year older, Stray, who was two years (since he was the oldest, Teddy and I had started to call him 'Uncle Kitty'), and even Terran, who's a little more than half a year younger, helped me realize that this was where I belonged- not at Gallow's Mansion with Kid and Dad. I might have been on the streets, homeless and running from anyone who realized we stole something from their house, like possibly clothes, and often pomegranates (Terran loves pomegranates. It was just that one day that he didn't like them... he said something about dogs, the word 'pungent', and a pink tropical fruit. But that's another story.).

"Aaron? You gonna eat or not?" asked Ranellin, nudging my shoulder with a finger. I shook my head to clear all my thoughts about my old home and gave Wave a small nod, not saying anything. I grabbed a cracker and nibbled on it gingerly while Ranellin munched on a few dried fruits and Flamey scarfed down everything in sight, including the egg carton itself. He probably would have eaten the water bottle, too, if Wave hadn't stopped him. Tilan had somehow magically disappeared at this point. Typical.

I rolled my eyes and took a gulp of water from the large bottle. I then stood and wiped off the dripping water from my mouth with my jacket sleeve. "I'm gonna go for a walk, guys. See ya later," I said, giving a wave of my hand.

"Watch out for gangsters," called Ranellin, while Terran continued to stuff himself with what food we had. I nodded and walked off.

_"Hurry up, Aaron," said Kid as we walked down the dark alley towards home. "There are loads of runaways and orphans here. Not to mention the gangs."_

_"We'll be fine," I protested, but obeyed his command anyway. I would do anything that my brother told me._

_I caught glimpses of eyes in the darkness, varying from blue to green to gray to amber. All eyes of kids, probably ranging from older then me to younger. I thought it was sad that families would abandon these kids, even if they didn't want to. I mean, if they didn't want to, they should at least do all they can to take care of each other. Maybe they could still be together. Right?_

_It was then that I noticed a flash of bright green go past the alley. I ran ahead of Kid to see a girl about my age walking fast with another boy who was maybe a year older._

_The girl had bright green hair with a red feather, and the boy had pitch black hair. They're running towards another street that I knew to have a large park there. I suddenly noticed that two beaded bracelets were dangling from the girl's hand- one black and red, one black and white. A jolt went down my spine._

_"Aaron, what did you stop for?" said Kid, nudging my shoulder. I looked up at him. "Oh... uh... nothing," I replied, and followed him down the sidewalk. I glanced over my shoulder, hoping to catch one last glimpse of those bracelets, but the girl and boy had disappeared._

"Aaron?" said Ranellin's voice as I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I whipped my head around to see Ranellin standing there with a slightly worried look on his face. Terran and Tilan were close behind him. "You okay?"

I nodded, still silent. Ranellin raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

It was then that I realized something- Ranellin had become like my older brother to me since I had left home. We were only a year apart, unlike Kid and me, who were two years apart, but that didn't stop him from being like an older brother to me, always watching out for me and protecting me.

These guys were my family, not those assholes of my "Dad" and "brother". Terr, Til, and Ran were the ones who would look out for me anytime, not just when it suited them.

I had a new family.

And that's exactly what I wanted.

I remember that one day that Teddy really got me thinking about what a family really was. We joked around a lot that day, Ran, Terr, Til, and I. But in the end, it was just thinking for me. I could have gone to the family shrink (Also known as Wave) about it, but he was digging around for more tea. And I did not want to interrupt his sock-digging, as the rest of us called it. Ran would be furious, and he rarely got furious.

There was this one day, pretty soon after I'd joined their little group, that Wave- who was normally this calm, collected guy- went and picked a fight with this gang down the street that was constantly going around and hurting street kids like us.

Ranellin was no easy opponent, I'll give him that much. He was well muscled and extremely tough. But those guys in the gang were just as tough, and there were multiple of them.

Tilan, Teddy and I only realized that Ranellin was gone a little while into his duel. We got over to that other street as fast as we could and saw Wave cornered by three burly guys, pretty badly bruised. Tilan was ready to rush in and give those guys a good beating, but I glanced at him in a way that I think he understood that I wanted to help Ranellin myself.

I don't quite know what it was, but I had this feeling that if this was Ranellin's fight, then it was mine. It must have been because of that day we made that deal. I'm a meister, he's a weapon- we could be parters. So I felt that this fight wasn't Tilan's or Terran's- it was Ranellin's and mine. I stepped forward, tapped one of the guys on the shoulder, and when he turned around, punched him square in the nose.

It didn't do much damage, but the guy seemed pretty stunned. He let out a low growling sort of noise and prepared to fight me.

I caught Wave's eye and I think he understood what I was trying to say. He gave a small nod and I backed up a few steps and held out my hand.

Ranellin transformed into weapon form and flew straight into my hand. I could hear Teddy's noise of disbelief when he realized Ran was a weapon, and that I was a meister. And I could only imagine dear Uncle Kitty's expression (Which, unfortunately, was probably the same normal one he generally wears all the time. Stray's not easily impressed).

Somehow, Ranellin and I managed to take down those guys. There were three of them, two of us. Ran must have been able to match my wavelength perfectly, because the jagged dagger blade felt like an extension of my arm as I slashed and blocked.

Ranellin transformed back to human form and received a ruffling of his hair from Tilan. "Not a bad fight, Wavey. Didn't know you were a weapon," he told Ranellin. Teddy was just extremely entertained by this entire incident, and was bouncing all around Ranellin and asking him all sorts of questions. Between Terran's rambling and questions, my weapon managed to shoot me a weak grin. "Thanks, Bone," he said quietly.

"Hey, no problem," I grinned back. "We are family, after all."


End file.
